Northern north Georgia already has some Wintery mess and schools have closed early. Here in southern north Georgia (in the north metro-Atlanta area), we have some ice on trees. I’m charging cell phones, batteries, tablet, and 3DS as I write. (Icy trees + Georgia = power outages)

As expected: toilet paper, milk, and bread are already scarce in some locations. Probably scarce, but not reported: beer. Georgians know how to prepare (at the last minute) for a Winter weather event that will probably amount to nothing. I hope.

I can’t wait for Summer. Our Winter hasn’t been bad here (knock on wood) in Georgia. The coldish damp is just making me antsy for sunshine. I want real sunshine, not the pale imitation thereof to which we’ve been subjected for the last few months.

If I can’t have sunshine, at least I can plan for sunshine. In this area, the promise of sunshine can mean only one thing: tomato planting season.

I’m dreaming of a tomato bumper crop. It probably won’t happen; the last two years we planted tomatoes, they were gobbled up (greens and all) by deer. It was heartbreaking. I’m not sure I want to go through all the hassle and business associated with deer-proofing a tomato garden (been there, done that, never worked). So I’m planting the next best things this year: squash and cucumber.

Deer don’t like squash and cucumber. Before maturing, they both have little prickly nubs on them that hurt deer mouths. I’ve planted both here successfully (and boy, how – I planted cucumbers so successfully one year we had to pickle most of them). I’m hoping to repeat that year’s crop this year.

We’re having a smallish Thanksgiving, just immediate family. Which will be great, but will still require the dining room table. When you use the dining room table as a work station, work gets interrupted when you need the dining room table for, you know, dining. So the dining room is getting fancied up. And the dining room table is getting cleared. And I’m counting our cranberry sauce cans carefully so that we have enough.

We have much to the thankful for this year. I hope that your Thanksgiving is just as blessed as ours is sure to be.

See you later, in the Christmas season! [Christmas Day is about a month away. Don't PANIC!]